Regulators approve GPI-NCC merger

   Global Ports Investments acquisition of NCC Group, the Moscow-based terminal operator with operations on the Baltic Sea, has been completed and approved by regulators.
   When the deal was first announced in September, a GPI spokesperson said the agreement will strengthen its foothold in the Russian market.
   “We are delighted to have completed such an important transaction, one that is an historic step for Global Ports, and which moves the group into the big league of major global container terminal operators,” Nikita Mishin, Global Ports’ chairman, said in a statement. “Over the next 12 months, we will focus both on integrating NCC into our group in order to realize the synergy potential of the transaction as well as on the swift deleveraging of our balance sheet.”
   Of the $291 million sale agreement, GPI has paid $229 million and will produce the remaining cash by Jan. 1, 2015. The group financed the transaction with a secured-term loan agreement.
   The enlarged Global Ports will operate nine container terminals, with a total marine container handling capacity of approximately 4 million TEU located in both the Baltic Sea and Far East.
   Global said it is now the largest container terminal operator in Eastern Europe and one of the top-20 container operators globally.
   Global Ports operates:

• Five container terminals in Russia (Petrolesport; First Container Terminal; Ust-Luga Container Terminal and Moby Dik in St. Petersburg; and Ust-Luga port cluster, Vostochnaya Stevedoring Company, in the Vostochny Port)
• Two container terminals in Finland (Multi-Link Terminals Helsinki and Multi-Link Terminals Kotka)
• A 75-percent interest in Yanino Logistics Park and 100 percent of inland Logistika-Terminal, both located in the vicinity of St. Petersburg
• A 50-percent share in the major oil product terminal AS Vopak E.O.S. in Estonia